The Problem With Worry

These past couple posts since I started writing again have taught me more than I thought..I had the mindset before of putting my thoughts on here to share with others..But now I'm realizing that these words aren't my words, so while it'd be awesome if people were getting stuff from my posts, I feel like every time I post I am able to learn something myself.

So I figure, why not talk about probably the greatest sin struggle I have.

Worry.

And YES. It is a sin to worry.

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not so much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?" Matthew 6:25-27

So if you look back in Exodus where the ten commandments are listed, how do each of the commands start?

Thou shalt not

Thou shalt

etc..

And in Matthew, JESUS, the Son of GOD, who conquered death...is giving a sermon centuries later and he is commanding us not to worry. Just like the Israelites were given the ten commandments, this is something our Father and Savior is commanding us not to do.

Because what's the opposite of worry?

Trust.

"Trust in the LORD with all of your heart, and LEAN NOT on your OWN UNDERSTANDING. In all your ways ACKNOWLEDGE HIM and He will make your paths STRAIGHT."

Think about it. When we choose to worry, we are choosing to not trust in God and the things He has promised.  And when we choose not to trust in God..we are choosing to trust in something else.

And that's what idolatry is.

How crazy is it that when we practice idolatry, we are expecting something besides God to supply for our every need! We are worshipping the created over the creator. And when we choose to allow ourselves to worry, we aren't just putting our hope and trust in something besides God.

We're choosing to make ourselves and our ways our own idol.

It's like saying.."Yeah, God..I know you hold the earth and you created me, and you do everything for the good of those who love you....But I just don't believe it, so I'm gonna just sit and worry about it."

When we worry, we are essentially calling God a liar.

And I am talking to myself more than ya'll could know right now. If I spent all my time praying instead of worrying..even just praying in general about my relationship with the Lord,not just the things I'm worried about...Wow would my life be radically different.

And I can't speak for everyone, but I know the very reason why I worry.

Control.

When it comes to my future, to my success, to anything ME related, I want to be in control. I love security, I love knowing things are going to work out. But wow, God does not call us to an easy life, or to a life of security. He calls us to pick up our cross daily and die to ourselves.

What does your cross look like? If it's a worry-cross, a control-cross, man take it up with the LORD! Every day I have to remind myself who is in control, and who's running the show..Because honestly, if I were in control all the time like I desire to be..wow, we would have a problem. 

Let go, because our wonderful FATHER has got our backs.

Fire

So I came across this story in God's word, and just felt really psyched to write about it.  It's a pretty well known story.(:

So in Daniel Ch.3, there's a story about three men-Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego...And they all live in Babylon. There's this king, Nebuchadnezzar, who kind of has a big head. He thinks he's pretty hot stuff, so he decides to set up a statue ninety feet high and nine feet wide of himself, made completely out of gold.  Not only that, but he made a proclamation that whenever the people of Babylon hear a trumpet sound, they are required to bow down and worship king Nebbie's statue.  And whoever doesn't fall down and worship the statue will be sentenced to burn in a fiery furnace... I don't know about you, but that sounds pretty scary, burning in a furnace, and definitely not the way I'd want to peace out of.  So, out of fear, everyone fell down and worshipped the statue.
Everyone except Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego...
"At this time some astrologers came forward and denounced the Jews. They said to King Nebuchadnezzar, 'O king, Live forever! You have issued a decree, O king, that every one who hears the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipes and all kinds of music must fall down and worship the image of gold, and that whoever does not fall down and worship will be thrown into a blazing furnace.  But there are some jews whom you have set over the affairs of the province of Babylon-Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego-who pay no attention to you, O king. They neither serve your gods nor worship the image of gold you have set up." Daniel 3:8-12

I love how the old testament can so easily apply to our lives, just as much as the new testament.
In our Christian walk, we are called to live a life set apart from the world..And this story paints such a clear picture of the walk that we should be walking.  Here's this powerful king that makes this decree, in which the punishment is death..and not a quick, painless death either..a fiery furnace. And it talks about earlier in chapter three that "all people, nations and men of every language fell down and worshipped the image of gold that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up." Which, I mean if you want to survive...it makes sense, right? Worship the statue and you keep your life.
"For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it." -Luke 9:24
Living a life devoted to Christ means not looking like those around you. When everyone is bowing down to things of the world, to their own modern version of the golden statue, as Christians we are called to proudly stand, take up our cross and follow Christ. That looks different to every person. Whether it's facing teasing or heat from friends for not giving in to peer pressure, or if you're legitimately risking your life to share your faith, each of us have our own cross to bear.  And people notice.  Because if you're surrounded by people bowing down, worshipping things of the world,a nd you're the only one standing up..people will see..because you're the only one standing. And that's scary.
Here's some encouragement though. Back to the story..
So when King Nebbie finds out that his three homeboys aren't bowing to his statue..He's "furious with rage"(vs 13). So he summons the three Jews, and questions them himself about their refusal to bow.  He asks them one more time if they really refused to worship him, the KING...and they say..
"O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king.  But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up." -Daniel 3:16-18
Although the three men are speaking truth, it still completely sets off king Nebbie, and the king orders that the furnace be heated seven times hotter...And the men get thrown in the furnace..
"He said, 'Look! I se four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods."
They get thrown in a furnace..something that should have killed them, and they walk around in the furnace..unharmed.
How powerful is our God!
But here's the thing..That story is just a true testament that our God will NEVER leave us..When things get hard, it's so easy to completely forget that God is with us..and it's also easy to question God's power. But remember what the three men told Nebbie?! No matter what king Neb. did, the men didn't need to defend themselves-God, the TRUE God's will would prevail.  Sometimes we go through fire, different from what the three men went through, though.  Our faith is tested. We doubt. Tough times come. But God does not ever leave. He does not forsake us! When we're walking through that fire, whether we recognize it or not, He is with us. How awesome is that! The God who defeated death not only loves us and pursues us, but is all powerful-and all he does is for our well-being, for the good of those who love him. If God is for us, WHO can be against us?
The Lord will not lead us through something in which his will cannot be accomplished! SO why not stand up? Why not be bold, and walk out on a limb on faith. We don't have to be afraid of persecution when sharing our faith, because God is on our side..
so let's start living our life unafraid of the fire...because the fire refines us.

Grace and Actions

Holy cow it's been awhile. Gonna try to be writing more.

This whole sophomore year has been a butt kicker as far as trials and temptations and just crud. But when I was looking over my past year, I couldn't help but feel so blessed to be part of the youth group I belong to at the Village.  Not just because of the people, who are AWESOME, but because of God's purely amazing and perfect timing.
Ever since last summer, my main struggle in my walk with Christ has been making my works my focus instead of God and His grace.  I just have a really hard time remembering that I'm NOT going to be perfect, but that God's got me covered by His grace.
How cool is it that this very issue would be the basis of almost every wednesday night home-group I go to? It seems like every single week we are getting it lovingly-pounded into us that our salvation is NOT based on our works-but on faith.
So that's what I want to talk about.
It just gets a little dicey for me when I think about grace/works/salvation...  Because I am so works based, and so goal oriented, and especially focused on pleasing others and God, the thought of letting anyone down, or failing them at all strikes a lot of fear and just sense of failure in me.
"Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free form the law of sin and death." Romans 8:1-2
Picture this. You're standing in court, in front of a jury and a judge. You've been accused of a crime in which the punishment is DEATH. No life prison, no chance for parole, none of that. And you know you're guilty. You know you DESERVE death, and everyone knows you're guilty. Just before the jury reads off the verdict, the judge sitting behind you waives you of all punishment, and takes your place.
But.God.
"But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions..." Ephesians 2:4-5
When God says that there is no condemnation. He means that there is NO condemnation. I feel like today it is so easy for us to read the Bible and not truly take in what it's saying. No condemnation means that when God looks at us, He only sees what Christ accomplished on the cross. When God looks at us, He sees white. Think about all the mistakes you've made, and the stuff you've done. If you are a believer of Christ, God does not SEE that! Instead He gives us the Holy Spirit. The SAME God who conquered death lives in us, and we now have the ability to become more like and to be sanctified by this all powerful Lord!
But pause.
When the judge stepped in and took our sentence, did we DO anything to make the judge step in? No! God just LOOKED at us and loved us and pursued us and died for us because he wanted to KNOW us-the same sinners who drove the nails into Christ's wrists.
We did absolutely nothing to deserve salvation.
"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith- and this is not from yourselves, it is a gift of God-not by works, so that no one can boast." Ephesians 2:8-9
Imagine how crazy you would seem if you received a pardon, an acquittal in that court...And you went out in the streets and said..
"Yeah, look at me! I saved myself from the death penalty! I did it all by myself!"
That's ridiculous. It was the JUDGE who did the saving...We have nothing to boast about.
But here's the thing.
What would your reaction be were you to be in the exact situation of hearing the judge wipe all charges away, and feel the handcuffs being taken off your wrist? Probably some shock for a little bit there..but what about after you went out living your life. Would you go out continuing to live the life you lived before, without even recognizing or remembering what the judge did? Or would you react to your acquittal?
"What good is it, my brothers and sisters if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? can such faith save them?" James 2:14
Okay..I feel like this verse is so easy to get tripped up, and the enemy can really use it to question salvation of followers of Christ. I know when I first came across this verse, I would always start sizing myself up, wondering if I had done enough works to back up my faith.
But I think that James is just honestly questioning what faith is with the absence of deeds.
Think about it. If we truly grasp what it means to be wiped away of all charges, to be truly free of condemnation, shouldn't there be a significant difference in the way we lived our lives before we were saved?
That's where I struggle though. Because I feel the need to be perfect, I can't grasp the fact that I'm going to mess up. Though I'm beginning to understand that God's grace isn't something that I'll ever fully be able to grasp, the Lord has been revealing to me that the more I fall in love with Him, the more I want to obey His commands..but also the more I am able to accept His saving grace. God commands us to not worry about anything. And that's including our future. While it is so important to live for the Lord, and to be sure and allow actions to back up our faith, we also have to understand that before anything, God's grace and what He did on the cross is what matters the most.

"For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depths, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Romans 8:37-39

Take the implications of that verse, and what it truly means, and go out and live your life in HOPE!

Hannah

Heart.

Wow. It's been a really long time since I've posted on here. The end of November and all of December were definitely insanely busy, but now that I'm on break I feel like my only excuse for not posting would be because I'm being lazy. But the Lord has been laying on my heart to talk about something.
And that's our hearts.
"The heart is deceitful above all things
and beyond cure.
Who can understand it?" -Jeremiah 17:9
Seems kind of different from what the world tells us, doesn't it?

I mean come on guys, we read in books, hear in songs, and on almost every TV show/movie, to follow your heart. LISTEN to your heart, etc...
Now why on earth would we do that? Don't get me wrong, I love disney movies and sappy country songs as much as the next person, but how could we follow our hearts when God's word clearly says the opposite? If you've read my blog at all, you would know that I fully believe, and have stressed over and over again how broken we are as human beings. The only way that we can know what is good and what is right is by the grace of the Holy Spirit.
"The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace." -Romans 8:6
Ultimately, our hearts nature is to chase after the desires of the flesh. Yes, Jesus is sweet and fills us with HIS will and His desire, but because we can never reach perfection in this world, our heart will not ever be fully and constantly be chasing after Him every second of the day. See, for the longest time, I tried so so hard to be perfect, and to try and be focused on the Lord 24/7. While it's always good to be chasing after the Lord, my focus became too much on reaching perfection, or, trying to, instead of God's grace. I allowed myself to become unnecessarily anxious every time I did something wrong, and I wouldn't let myself enjoy the blessings the LORD had given me, because I was too busy fretting over if the Lord was pleased with my actions or not.
Well, here's the thing. Yes, we honor the Lord when we do things for Him, and sacrifice things, and submit our will to Him. But pleasing him is a whole other thing. We PLEASE the Lord just by being a child of His. And there's this really fine line, I think, when the position of our ever-changing heart is vitally important. See, we as Christian's will ALWAYS be going through seasons-where we feel close to God, or feel like we're drifting, hearing his voice, or not. (trust me, definitely going through a season right now!!) Our hearts are ever changing. But one thing isn't changing, and that's Jesus Christ, and His GRACE! Nothing we can do or not do will ever make Him love us more, and nothing we can do can certainly ever make us love Him LESS! And I feel like this is such a foreign concept to us as humans, because we don't have the capacity to love like that-Only God does! And when we do things for the Lord, we should be doing them because we LOVE Him, not because we want to try and make Him love us more, as impossible as that is... Is your heart a heart of worship, or a heart of worry? A heart of worship, or a heart of works?
Well.
That's all I got!
I'll definitely be trying to post on here more often!

Talking to My Dad

Yayyy for another blogpost!!!


Well, God is continuing to be awesome-I mean, does he ever really stop? And has shown me and revealed to me so much this past week of school that I really don't know exactly where He's gonna take this blog post I'm writing right now. But here's where I want to start.

"Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. Is any one of you sick? he should call the elders of the church to pray over him and annoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so thatyou may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective." ~James 5:13-16


So a couple of my friends in choir hold a weekly Bible study, and a couple nights ago we talked about prayer, and what it is...and it really got my thoughts stirring, and the Holy Spirit started to do some really cool stuff.
So maybe ya'll have heard this analogy before. It's like..we all have a best friend, or a group of friends or a family member we are really close to. But what would happen if we just stopped talking to that person? if we stopped communicating with them completely? Inevitably, whether over time or quickly, depending on the relationship, that friendship would probably start to suffer a little bit.
Now think of our relationship with Christ.  How often do we go through our day, and not acknowledge The Creator of the universe at all? I have this problem-when things are good, yeah I might throw up a little thanks, a shout out to Jesus...and when things are bad I'm pretty consistent about telling him to fix the mess that I most likely made myself.  But that's exactly it. Until just recently I viewed prayer as something routine, something that I just sort of 'did' in my relationship with God.
Well if you read that passage I posted from James..you'll see that that's not what prayer is about.
Guys, prayer is a gift. Ya'll it's not something that should be viewed as a chore, or as something we HAVE to do. It's open communication with the God who loved us enough to die for us!
Think about it this way.
God sent his son to die for us, but imagine if we had no communication with Him after Christ died, If we had no communication with Christ-no solid rock  to turn to?  We aren't deserving of this communication with him at all! But the fact that God is great and loving enough to offer this gift-even though we constantly sin, and are constantly messing up...That should be enough to make us want to pray ALL THE TIME!
"I cried out to God for help; 
I cried out to God to hear me.
When I was in distress, I sought the Lord;
at night I stretched out untiring hands
and my soul refused to be comforted." -Psalm 77:1-2


Something I love about prayer, that I'm growing to love, is knowing that God hears me. And like...yeah I always knew in the back of my head that he heard my prayers..I mean we get that every sunday when we go to church practically-that God hears us. But I feel like, since we're humans, and we won't ever be able to fully comprehend Christ in so many ways..it's hard for us to get that when God says he hears us...Guys, he HEEEARRRRS US! I mean, I fully believe that when we sit down, or go for a walk, or do whatever to just spend time, intentional time, with the Lord..he's not just like.."Oh, hey, hannah wants to talk to me...Cool." Guys, I picture Him getting so pumped, so stinking EXCITED just to spend time with us-even if it is just for a small amount of time. Guys how amazing is that? That God really wants to hear what we have to say!!!! I wish I could fully appreciate that.
But here's something else cool about prayer-and praying for others specifically.
It keeps us in touch with the Lord. After going to this Bible study and learning a little about prayer, I tried something the next day, AKA yesterday, at school. I have multiple friends who aren't believers, and one in particular I walk with going to and from one of my classes. And as we walked, God put the desire in my heart to just..'shower her with prayer'. I know that may sound cheesy, but it was so fulfilling not even knowing the full extent of what was going on in her life, and just praying for God to work in her life that day. And who knows-maybe He revealed something in her heart. But throughout the day I started doing that-picking a person in my life, or even an issue in my own life...or even something I was thankful for, or something that I was upset about..and I Just told God about it or them. And guys, my joy was so much more COMPLETE! I was able to focus on the Lord in such a more real way-and prayer became a privelege..
Ya'll, prayer is so important...and it is truly, truly POWERFUL!
Love ya'll! Keep living for Christ!

Radiance

Hey guys! It's been forever since I've posted, but I'm gonna try and be more consistent.
I want to talk a little about radiance.

Radiance: brightness or light. warm, cheerful.

The first time I heard the term radiance, the first thing I thought of was the sun. I mean radiance, the word itself, isn't really a word that I regularly use every day in my vocabulary (if you do...cool!). But yeah, I thought of the sun. I know for everyone that experienced the Texas heat this summer..it was HOT! The sun was RADIANT. While I'm pretty positive nobody was walking around outside talking about how cheerful the heat was, you have to admit: the sun was noticeable. It was light.

"Therefore, let your light shine among men, so that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven." -Matthew 5:16

So I've heard that verse up there a lot in life, and legitimately right now as I'm writing this I'm beginning to see what it means to have a light that shines.
Of course, of course of COUUUURSE we are called as lovers and followers of Christ to witness, to be bold, to share the gospel and carry out Christ's great commission. And I know a lot of times I hear people say that you can do that two ways: through your words and through your actions.
Well what about the way you respond?  What about the way that you carry yourself?  Guys, here we are, and not only are we given this insane gift of having access to communicate with the creator of the universe, but we are presented with joy, unending joy, because we get to spend all of eternity with a God that loves us more than we could ever imagine-and yet we don't go through every single day completely and totally joy-filled, radiant! (granted..we're only human!)
But look at the Psalms:
"Come let us sing for joy to the Lord;
let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.
Let us come before him with thanksgiving
and extol him with music and song." -Psalm 95:1-2
That's just one section of one Psalm out of that whole book of the Bible-the longest book of the Bible, too! It's filled with praises, and adoration to the Lord.

Guys, I want to challenge you (and myself!) to stop basing your joy on things that are circumstantial. Because while every good and perfect thing comes from the Lord, and He sure does give generously, we live in a broken world, so inevitably rough things are gonna happen-we're gonna have hard days, we're going to go through difficult times. If we allow our joy to be based on whether we are having a good day or not-we're going to fall short, and that 'joy' isn't joy anymore. It's happiness. now NOTHING is wrong with being happy, please don't get me wrong on that. But anyone can be happy-what shows radiance, what shines the light for everyone to see- is when you carry around the hope that Christ has offered us-the hope of eternal life, and you let that define the way you go about your life..people are going to notice.
We can't do this by ourselves...Pray that God can shine through you, and that He will teach you to be radiant.

With Confidence

You know what I've let my life be consumed with these past couple weeks? ha. Scratch that. Since I got home from camp? WORRY.
Needless.
Stupid.
Ridiculous worry.
I don't even know where it began.. I guess here's a good place to start. I get home from camp, and I had gone thru a lot-I learned a ton, but I had struggled hardcore and made some stupid decisions. I told myself, though, that i was done worrying about choir, that i was done worrying about things EXTERNAL. And that's what I told people. When they heard I had an audition coming up, they'd be like, "hannah, I bet you're freaking out/so stressed" and I would get frustrated and be like..no, I'm not! I've chagned!
Yeah, on the outside maybe.  But really I was lying to myself.
BUt i was still worrying about things internally. I would see my sins, all the things I was doing wrong-and the things that maybe I wasn't doing well ENOUGH. And I would sit in worry, and it sucked. It really sucked. I can honestly say I have NOT been joyful for the Lord these past couple of months. Because I've been so focused on fixing myself.
haha, wrong-check out the scriptures.
"Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of our faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water."
Hebrews 10:19-22
Guys, no stinking place in God's BOOK OF TRUTH does it say that we can only be in the presence of the Lord by our OWN works! The whole point of Christianity, the whole reason it is so different from any other religion out there is that it's by GRACE we're saved! And when Christ died, that veil that was torn, that is so IMPORTANT! We have a God that wants us JUST as we are! I don't know aboutyou, but as cool as that sounds, I still struggle with wanting to be like.. "Okay God...yeah that's great of you, but I still feel like I need to be fixed before I can come t